DuPont Nutrition & Health has opened a new Innovation Application Centre in Gurgaon, a financial and industrial city in the state of Haryana, India, in March 2015.

The application centre is established with the aim of introducing innovative and customised flavours to the Indian market by closely working with local food producers. It enables the company to showcase its expertise and helps its customers save time in developing novel solutions.

It works in collaboration with DuPont’s Innovation Centre network and leverages the knowledge, expertise and experience of its experts working globally.

The facility is designed to allow further expansion and is expected to employ 15-20 people by the end of 2015.

Project background

The food industry in India is witnessing a 15%-20% growth a year. To cater this growth and offer customised solutions based on the taste and flavours of Indian food, DuPont has come up with the solution to develop a Nutrition and Health Innovation Application Centre in India.

DuPont Innovation Application Centre details and benefits

DuPont’s Nutrition and Health Innovation Application Centre is a 10,000ft² facility designed to provide customised local food applications to food manufacturers.

It will provide a solution-based approach instead of an ingredient-based one. It acts as a venue to the company to showcase how it helps customers develop innovative products. It provides a range of innovative formulations to the Indian market, including flour-based products, dairy, nutritional beverages and powders.

It will introduce more affordable and convenient food choices for Indian consumers. Product formulations will be tailored to meet the hotter climatic conditions of the country where cold chain technology is not available.

Focus would be more on increasing the shelf-life of products as the hot climate makes them prone to spoilage.

Equipment and production capabilities at DuPont’s application centre in India

It also features a high-temperature short-time / ultra high-temperature line capable of multiple temperature / time combinations and upstream or downstream homogenisation with an in-line clean fill unit. A spray dryer and dry blender are also installed.

The centre also features equipment to process bakery foods including breads, biscuits, buns, cakes, rusk and flat breads. It uses variable mixing technology including spiral, planetary and sigma for processing.

Equipment includes a dough sheeter, baking oven, prover, bread moulder, bun rounder and a biscuit line for fermented and short dough.

The pilot equipment, which is capable of handling multiple trials in small batches and applications, can be scaled up with a high-degree of repeatability in industrial set-up.